Third World Electives

Piste

'scraic,

Just wondering if anyone here has done an elective in the third/developing world? If so, how did you find it? When did you do it?

I want to do two electives after fourth year, both in the US but I would also like to do a developing world elective, would the Summer of third year be too young for this?

Also did you ever feel a sense of hoplessness, like you weren't making a real difference, that for every person you helped there were thousands more starving/dying of disease. I can imagine I'd feel quite despairing and like I was just a drop in the ocean, so with that in mind I'm wondering are there any public health electives in the developing world where you can get involved in health servise planning, that effects change on a wider scale.

Yillan

I worked in a hospital in Ghana for 5 months during my undergrad degree. Haven't started GEM yet. I found that it was pretty difficult to make a difference as what the place needed was not people on the ground as much as it needed money. Money for vaccines and medicines moreso than student doctors to dole it out and that.

While I was there though a group of experienced surgeons from the states came over and performed something like 200 operations in a week on things like lipomas and giant tumours that would have been allowed to grow unabated for much longer than they would have been in a developed country. They made a hugely positive impact on people's lives in the region some of whom traveled great distances for the surgery. Interview with one of the doctors. It's something I'd really hope to do myself some day when I feel I've something similar to contribute.

I have been thinking along the same lines as you as regards your impact having a larger scope, but I think our thinking might be a little idealistic and naive. The advice I was given on arriving in Ghana was to not try and save the world, just connect with people and see if you can make a difference however small.

As a final word I'd say find a charity in Africa or wherever and when you're making big bucks as a doctor, send some money their way. If you're certain you want to travel to do some volunteer work, think small scale, high impact like the American surgeons. Wait til you've a few years quality experience under your belt and go over and have a profound impact on a smaller community or region for a fortnight. Organise that you travel to that region every year with some co-workers and form links between the hospital at which you work and a hospital out there.